Congress goes back to Gandhis, Sonia named Interim Chief by the CWC

August 10: Sonia Gandhi was named interim Congress president on Saturday. The Congress Working Committee (CWC) made the announcement late on Saturday night. Pitching it as a stop-gap measure, the party said it will pick a new president when its plenary session is held later this year.

Former Congress presidents Rahul and Sonia Gandhi Saturday said they would not take part in the process of nominating the next party chief. At a meeting of the Congress Working Committee (CWC) at the AICC headquarters in New Delhi today, the leaders said they could not be part of the consultations as they have served as heads of the party in the past. During the CWC meeting, it was also decided that Congress chief ministers, state presidents and party office bearers would be consulted before a new president was chosen.

Rahul Gandhi had quit the party’s top post in May after its disastrous performance in the Lok Sabha election and subsequently refused the party’s requests to withdraw his resignation. The decision to appoint Sonia Gandhi as interim president was made after a marathon meeting of the CWC, which arrived at the decision after discussing reports of five groups, formed earlier in the day, and scrutinising the names of Rahul Gandhi’s potential successor.

At the first meeting on Saturday morning, the Congress’ top brass met at the party headquarters. These included former prime minister Manmohan Singh, party general secretaries Priyanka Gandhi Vadra, Ahmed Patel, AK Antony, Ghulam Nabi Azad and P Chidambaram.

For most of its 134-year history, the Congress always had the Gandhis at the helm, except for several years in the 90s after former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi was assassinated.